Latest project

[Hurstmeister]

Finally got a break in the weather and started stripping my car today.

Plans are to strip it down to the shell and trailer it over to Bryan (351coupe) for body work and paint.

Going to do a full resto-mod to the car. Everything is being replaced. All gaskets, trim, new carpet, door panels, console, headliner,.. anything that cant pass off as new will be replaced with something that does.

I'm still not 100% sure which color I will go with. I'm 95% sure I will go with Autumn metallic Orange, but there is a 5% chance between now and January when it goes in for paint that I might decide on Dark Shadow Gray or possibly Mineral Gray.

Suspension wise, Bryan has a D&D k-member with a-arms that I will be buying from him. I will be using the front and rear sway bars from my wife's old 96 Cobra. Going to swap to stiffer coil springs front and rear, Eibach makes a set that I think will be perfect. The car already has welded in subframe connector. I'm debating on whether to do a Fays2 Watts link in the rear or just do a simple panhard bar kit.

Engine,
Been talking with Nicole who is Jim's wife (Woody) of Ford Stroker's. Going with a fully forged 408 short block from him. I'll do the top end myself. Will be be using Vic Jr heads, hopefully I can score those Pro Magnum rockers, Jim will be doing a custom grind cam for me. Induction will be done through an Air Gap intake and 750 cfm Holley. The goal is 375 - 400 at the wheels. Jim says he sees no problem with that in this build.

Wheels will be either TSW Carthage or AZA Z-02 wheels. 18x8 up front using 245/40 rubber and 18x10 out back running 285/35 rubber.

Brakes will consist of 96 Cobra 13" drilled and slotted rotors up front and stock rear drums for now or if I can find some I will upgrade to the 10" ranger drums out back using ranger axles in the rear. Have a 4.10 gear in the car right now. Not sure if it will stay in there. I have a 3.73 I might toss in or I might see if anyone has a 3.55 they'd trade with me.

Thats the plans for now. My wife wants to run the car at Sebring and possibly make a trip up to Road Atlanta next summer. Hopefully I can make the car competitive enough for her to run there. I just want to cruise around on the weekends and see how much trouble I can get stirred up.

Here are some pics of how the car is looking right now. The car has been stored under a car cover for almost 3 yrs now.

Spent rubber from 3yrs ago when MT ET Streets were on the car. Fun times,..












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I'm hoping to have the car on the road by April. Should come out pretty sweet once done.

Hurst

[1BADP71]

I bet yours is done before mine good luck!

[Hurstmeister]

I'm shooting for an April completion data,.. but anything can happen along the way.

Hurst

[Stoopid Wendy]

I didn't know it was a theft recovery. LOL keep at it, how long have you had that car?

john

[Hurstmeister]

I didn't know it was a theft recovery. LOL keep at it, how long have you had that car?

john

LOL

Looks that way. I started stripping it down and my wife made the suggestion that I should document the restoration process. So here are the humble beginnings.









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I've had the car for about 3 yrs now.
I was running a 306, AFR 185 heads, Vic jr intake, 600 CFM Holley running mid 12's through a T5 and 4.10 rear. I had it together for about 3 months and got bored with the 12's. Decided to build a 408 single turbo. I sold the motor, tranny and supporting parts. Bought Kelly's TKO, a Dart 377 short block and was 24 hours away from buying a GT88-47 when I got laid off.

The car sat on jack stands in my father inlaws garage for over a year.











Everything is gone and sold. The only thing left is the TKO I bought from kelly. I'm glad I didnt cave in and give it away.

I'll up date as things progress. Been sick and its sprinkling out right now so not much I can do. Supposed to meet Cliff later today for the 1/4 windows. Hopefully it isnt raining too badly this afternoon.

Hurst

[Stoopid Wendy]

I thought you had that car for a lot longer than 3 years. Glad to see it get reborn.

john

[purple87lx]

You wouldn't happen to want to sell the cheese grader tails now would you?

[Hurstmeister]

You wouldn't happen to want to sell the cheese grader tails now would you?

Negative.

That was one of the key things I liked when I traded for the car. I love the stock GT tail lights. I never understood why people always swap out for Euro or LX lights. I think they are so boring.

[purple87lx]

Yeah I have 85 tri colors in mine I've been looking for the stock gts and there rare to find in good shape.

[MiDiablo]

Glad to see you're finally able to get back to work on the ole gal, Hurst. Good luck with the project man!

[Hurstmeister]

Have some updates.

Interior is finally stripped. This car is really weird. There is absolutely no rust in all the places that fox body cars normally rust. Inner floors and underneath the car are flawless. Nothing. But on the front bumper supports where the bumper bolts to the bracket is rusting. The battery tray and engine bay are mint,.. no rust at all. But when I pulled the fenders off the seam that they tach weld for the unibody had some surface rust starting. And below the left and right sides of the windshield on the unibody there was some kind of caulking or sealer done by the factory and it looked as though it had been rotting for some time. I took a wire wheel and removed it and found some surface rust starting under there as well.

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So all in all I am happy I caught this rust now. I would never have found this rust if I didnt tear the car down. I will keep this in mind for future cars I buy,.. now I know more places I need to check.

I am almost finished with the 5 lug conversion. The rear was incredibly easy. Bought Fox length hardened alloy axles for the rear. Took me all of 15 mins to swap out. Took me longer to pop the outer bearings and seals out then the actual swap did. Thats all done. Thanks to Greg (StangitMan) for the 5 lug roll around wheels. Putting these to good use right now.










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I'm using the front hubs and brakes from my wife's old 96 Cobra. I'm just trial fitting this for right now. The rotors are shot and can not be used. They've been sitting on the floor of my shed for 3 years and they have 134k miles on them when I pulled them from the car. They are toast now. I am buying some drilled and slotted rotors to replace them. The calipers I will rebuild and paint them myself. Same with the hub and spindles. I will have them media blasted and then I will paint them before I put them on permanently.

The one thing I noticed using the 96 - 98 Spindles is that the spindle sinks pretty deep on the fox ball joint. You need to use about 3 - 4 good sized washers to shim the nut so it can torq down on the ball joint. I will be using an AJE k-member with QA1 tubular arms and will be using SN95 style ball joints so this wont be a problem for me later. The hub is missing one stud because I knocked it out before I thought to take pics. They are rusty and I want to use clean wheel studs.

This is before with the stock fox 4 lug spindle/hub and rotor.





Now after, trial fitting the Cobra part. Fits great. A very simple bolt on procedure.




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And here are to show you the difference between the stock fox spindle and rotor compared to the 13" Cobra rotor and spindles. This is all you need to do the front swap. Any 94 - 04 Hub and spindle assembly will work. But I am told that the 94/95 spindles are more desirable than the 96 - 04 spindles due to the tie rod arm mounting location. But I assure you,.. the 96 - 04 are perfectly safe to use as well.




Thats where I am at so far.
I need to strip out the engine bay and swap in my tilt column and then she will be ready for Bryan to do his magic.

I'm looking at a GM 6.0 out of an 04 Escalade that has 4994 miles on it. Trying to jew the price down a little but I will probably end up buying it. Then convert to to carb, throw in a TREX 224 cam and Dynamax makes Fox long tube headers for LSx engines. I already have the Quicktime bell to use my my Ford TKO behind the LSx engine. According to the 'experts', the motor should be making between 375 - 400hp to the ground. That should make for a fun street cruiser.

I'll post up more pics as the car progresses. Shooting for a late April early May completion date. Still have a lot of work to do.

Hurst

[Pshull727]

damn i want the front brakes lol looking good so far

[Hurstmeister]

My car is now in the hands of Bryan (351Coupe). I took it to his shop last Tues. I went with Sonic Blue with a single wide white stripe down the middle of the car.

Nothing too fancy. Just a regular 93 GT with stock ground effects and a 4" Kaenen cowl hood. Body wise it will be pretty much stock except for the hood and wheels.

My car should be painted and ready hopefully by the end of March, early April. While in there I will be getting the engine and the rest of my goodies ready. So when I get it back home its just a matter of assembling all the new parts.

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This is the programmable MSD stand alone ignition set up. Its the MSD 6010 for carb'd LSx engines. Plugs into the factory crank and cam sensors and then each coil pack bank. It comes with a MAP sensor that gets hooked up to vacuum. There are 6 or 7 different pills that you can plug in. Each has different ignition and advance setting from mild to aggressive. It also has a data port that you can plug it into your computer. You install the software that comes with it and then you can set the ignition up how ever your want with MAP points for the entire RPM range. Pretty neat piece. The intake was $259 at Summit and the MSD 6010 I got through Jegs for $309.




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This Lakewood bell will allow me to use my Ford TKO so I can still use a cable actuated clutch with the GM 6.0 engine.




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This is the pilot bearing adapter for the LSx block because Ford uses a smaller one and the input shaft would not have been seated properly with out this.




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Brake pads are here but the slotted/drilled rotors are on back order. Expecting delivery on the 7th with the lower control arms for the AJE k-member. I was expecting my headers on Friday but they never showed up. UPS doesnt deliver on weekends so I guess they'll be here Mon.


Still need a few more things before I am done.
Need an Fbody radiator.
Some 3" exhaust pipe to finish out the exhaust from the headers.
Still trying to decide on mufflers. I want quiet Mufflers but still want to hear the deep rumble. I will probably try some Walker or Thrush 3 chamber mufflers and see how they sound.
Still trying to decide on a cam profile to use.

Thats pretty much it for now. Going to paint the engine block and valley plate Chevy Orange. Debating whether or not to pull the heads and hand port them. Odds are I will get bored waiting for my car to come out of paint and I will probably end up pulling the heads. I'll post pictures if I do. I know how you guys love to scrutinize work like that. :thumbsup

Hurst

[stealth gt92]

that car is going to move with that gm POWAAAA!! post pics of the motor!

[351coupe]

Cars gonna be sweet when its done.im not good at progress pics cause I'm so wrapped up in what I'm doing,but i will take lots of pics along the way for my shop forum.